The agriculture industry has been enjoying a lot of popularity in recent years. A lot of focus has fallen onto it from many sides, as world leaders are actively trying to address some of the issues looming on the horizon. At the same time, demands have been growing steadily. According to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), global agriculture production will rise at a 1.5% annual rate. The pandemic only made the situation more apparent by exposing the fragile nature of the global infrastructure. At this point, a lot of effort is being invested into exploring methods for optimizing the performance of typical agricultural setups. Six Sigma is one of the better candidates on the horizon, and it’s already seeing a lot of utilization in this sector.
Optimizing Yield for Revenue
It’s more important than ever to maximize the output of a typical agricultural operation. This can be approached from multiple sides, and the one thing that’s common across all of them is that it requires a deep understanding of the way resources are used. Agriculture offers lots of opportunities for precise optimization, and Six Sigma has enabled many farmers to increase their yield, and therefore improve their bottom line. Some of the methods we’ve seen discovered have been a bit surprising. But in the end, that’s part of what makes Six Sigma so good. It can work even when you don’t have a precise understanding of all variables involved.
Minimizing Unused Assets
Speaking of resource utilization, Six Sigma has also enabled many agricultural operations to minimize the number of assets that remain unused. Machines and other assets sitting idly is a type of waste, and it’s something that should be avoided at all costs in an efficient operation. Six Sigma can enable farmers to ensure that all of their machines are seeing the maximum utilization they can get in the current circumstances. At the same time, all other resources used by the farm can also be put to use to their full potential.
Developing a Long-term Solution That Incorporates Those Optimization Approaches
All of this doesn’t mean much if these approaches can’t be generalized into a sustainable long-term solution. Developing a solid plan for the long-term optimization of agricultural practices has been an important task for those exploring the field, and we’re already seeing some interesting ideas cropping up. It will be even more exciting to follow these developments over the next few years, because it’s very likely that they are going to be at the heart of some major transformations in the agricultural sector.
The one thing that’s needed the most right now are people contributing to this research. The more eyes we have on this, the faster we’re going to progress and discover solutions that work. It’s going to take some time to get to a state where agriculture is truly optimized and works without any waste, and until then, there’s plenty of work available for anyone interested in taking part. Six Sigma is not going away anytime soon, and it’s important to understand its benefits when it comes to developing optimal approaches for the core parts of our lives.
Interesting article, I like the idea of applying lean practices to Agriculture . Do you think that this will become an on going trend and that perhaps agriculture courses in university will begin to offer lean certifications or just incorporate them into the curriculum